Yet another Koigu project

Clearly I don't have enough unfinished projects so I had to start another one. Yes, that is sarcasm.

Actually, there is a (completely ridiculous) reason I started on yet another Koigu sock: I want more leftovers for my Koigu scraps blanket! All I have left is various shades of blue and that doesn't make for a very nice last panel. This crazy Koigu color (P298-1 if you're curious) hasn't been in my stash for that long but it calls my name every time I pass it in my yarn bookshelf. Speaking of which, I just realized I never showed you how I am displaying my handpainted sock yarn in my new place, did I? Guess I better get on that!

But back to the sock. I initially thought I wanted to do something textured to play with this high-contrast colorway, so I started out with a knit/purl pattern. I liked the texture but it got lost in the color, so I started over. Next I tried something with slipped stitches, and that looked good but it seemed too "formal" for such a fun colorway, so I ripped that out too. Then I tried something kind of crazy: I took the "wrapped cable" technique and applied it to just regular stockinette. It was REALLY COOL but again, it seemed too stuffy for this colorway, so I ripped that out, too. I'm saving that one for another design, it was really interesting looking and I can't wait to try it again.

In the end, the simple stockinette and rib pattern you see above is what I settled on. The top of the sock is 2x2 rib, then it's just stockinette with a few stitches' worth of 2x2 rib down the side. Those rib stripes will run down the outside of the leg and then along the top outside edge of the foot. The other sock will have the same thing but mirrored on the other side. Very straight-forward but effective in this colorway. The beauty of Koigu is that it rarely (I'd even say "almost never") pools, so you can get away with simple stockinette socks even in a highly-contrasting color like this one. I can't imaging doing this in something like Lorna's Laces or STR, the pooling and spiraling would be insane in those yarns!

Oh and stay tuned for a new pattern announcement early next week . . . . I've got something pretty BIG to tell you about!